


face the music

by bipp_splapl



Series: to reckon [8]
Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc
Genre: Afterlife, Aftermath of Torture, Aftermath of Violence, Angst, Dead People, Gen, Graphic Description, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Remnants of Despair (Dangan Ronpa), chihiro and leon are friends, chihiro calls someone a bastard it makes sense in context, improper use of baseball equipment, nidai nekomaru (mentioned) - Freeform, souda kazuichi (mentioned) - Freeform, they are dead do not forget this, we do be throwing staplers tho
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-15
Updated: 2020-05-18
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:06:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24194038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bipp_splapl/pseuds/bipp_splapl
Summary: Kuwata Leon and Fujisaki Chihiro take this opportunity to check how things are doing outside of Hope's Peak
Relationships: Fujisaki Chihiro & Kuwata Leon
Series: to reckon [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1715428
Comments: 4
Kudos: 66





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> this is actually gonna be a three chapter fic so cme back in the next few days it will be done by the weekend

Two pairs of feet flew up the stairs, the slap of rubber echoing through the corridor—one pair of bound three at a time, the other pattering on each step. The night before, an all-school announcement informed Class 78 that if they wanted to view what was happening outside Hope’s Peak, they could with the headmaster’s supervision. Fujisaki Chihiro and Kuwata Leon immediately started planning, determined to be the first ones to see. The two made camp in the baseball player’s room for an all-nighter, stockpiling a hoard of energy drinks and video games from the school store. 

Two distinct laughs filled the quiet school hallways, one wheezy, one soft, both delirious from a lack of sleep. Despite being surrounded by classmates, the two felt alienated at times. As their memories returned, so too did their friendship. While the others were muddled with complicated feelings warped by old (new?) memories, their relationship was simple. They were glad for simplicity. They were glad for their friendship. Right now, they were glad for the support. 

Two boys rounded the corner to the fourth floor, one dragging his fingers against the wall (an old habit stuck from his time on the field, idly playing with chain link fencing while he waited to bat.) Two pairs of shoes skidding across clean floors, two friends fueled by energy drinks and candy bars, and two teenagers entirely unprepared for what they were about to see. 

Leon skid to a halt, squarely planting himself in front of the Data Processing Room without losing his balance, a skill developed from years of experience on the field. He didn’t look back as Chihiro approached from behind, slowing his run to a light jog. This was the place alright, the one mentioned in the announcement. The class had explored all corners of the school, but no one seemed to pay any mind to the conspicuous door. It honestly looked more like a broom closet than anything. And inside, the headmaster, presumably. 

Neither wanted to make the first move. No matter how many times it was proved otherwise, a part of them still worried Monokuma would pop out, and they’d be thrown into the mess all over again. Looking at the door, it felt like something sinister lurked behind. If there were to ever be an evil control lab, it would be here. Whoever opened the door would be the shithead of the century for revealing an evil twist like that. 

The baseball player gulped, eyes flitting all over the door for signs of a trap. The voice beside him laughed nervously, sounding as forced as it did in the killing game. Leon glanced at his friend, who was tugging at his sweater. “Nothin’s gonna happen, stupid,” he said, more to calm himself down than Chihiro. “You know that, right?”

“S-sure…” Chihiro replied, his eyes glued to the wool. “I’m more afraid of what we’re going to see on screen. Headmaster Kirigiri kept it under lock-and-key, I’m sure it’s bad.”

Leon scoffed, a hand running through his hair. It had grown longer since being here, and fingers caught in a knot. “‘verything’s bad,” he said as he yanked his hair out, hand pulling through with a small hiss of pain. 

Instead of replying, Chihiro simply hummed. Everything was bad. But now it was better, but only after a horrible experience. As much as he wanted his classmates to feel the ease he was in now, it wasn’t good to wish them here. Nothing really seemed good at all. The best he had was comradery. Turning, Chihiro gave his friend a small but bright smile. “Well if we’re going to find out the truth, I’m glad it’s not alone.” 

Then it’s decided. They would face the unknown together. Almost by impulse, his hand shot to the doorknob and turned. And turned again. And turned again. Chihiro kept on turning on turning, but the handle would do little more than jiggle. _This was the right place...right?_ The two kept staring at the handle as if looking hard enough to open with a click. 

Whatever train of thought in their head was interrupted by the sound of a throat clearing behind them. Both turned to look behind them. Chihiro, startled, quickly dipped into a bow, while Leon looked over his shoulder lazily. He scanned up and down at the man, who was best described as tired. He was of average build, average almost everything, really, except for his piercing eyes. Leon recognized him. Why did he know him? Glancing down, he noticed a steaming cup of coffee in a mug that said, “World’s Greatest Headmaster.”

 _Oh._ The ultimate baseball star bowed as well. 

A soft chuckle helped ease any tension. After a few minutes of apologies, the two boys were reacquainted with their former headmaster. 

“I wasn’t expecting anyone to be up this early,” Jin gestured with his coffee mug towards the door, and the two parted, allowing him to pull out his keys and unlock the handle. “If only you two woke up like this for class.”

“Yea, well, we didn’t really _wake up…_ ” Leon said with a sheepish smile, well-aware of Jin’s eyes now burning into the depths of his soul. _Shouldn'tve_ _said that eshouldn’t’ve said that shouldn’t’ve said that-_

“Kirigiri…” Chihiro said with a hum. “I recognize that name.”

“Probably from my daughter.” Jin brushed his hand against the inside wall, flipping a few switches. The room sprang to life with a whir, illuminated both by the fluorescent lighting above and the soft glow from what must have been a couple dozen monitors. “She was a classmate of yours.”

“Oh! Kyoko-san then?” Chihiro wandered over to the closest modem unit, carefully dragging a finger against its black plastic. Spotless, not even a smudge of dust. Oh, this was heaven. Still, he made an effort to be engaged.

“Precisely,” Jin replied. “Is she doing well?”

“She seemed to be the last I saw her.” The programmer squat down to the ground, fiddling with some wires under the desk. He was hardly paying attention to his conversation, too preoccupied by the machinery. “Better than us three, I guess...” 

A snort came from outside the room. Leon was still hanging back outside, unsure how comfortable he felt someplace like this. He’d be like, a total bull...someplace. He knew it was an idiom (...?), but he seriously didn’t pay attention to that lesson. _Dammit!_ His teacher was right, he _did_ want to know this. 

“Now that you mention it,” Leon said as he gently set foot inside. “I can totally see the resemblance now. It’s all in the eyes. They’re all, like...purple ‘nd shi- _stuff, purple-’nd-stuff._ ” 

“It is a signature of the Kirigiri family.” Jin watched as Leon shifted his weight side-to-side, still uncomfortable by the space. “And you know, your classmate Oowada-san has purple eyes, too.” 

“Those are totally different!” A fist flew to hit the closest table before faltering mid-air, landing with a half-hearted thud. “That’s more of a mauve, you’re totally lavender.”

“I’d say they’re closer to heather!” Chihiro called from across the room.

“I’on’t even know what heather is, _dipshit!_ ”

“ _I spent my last moments on Earth staring into them, gripped with total fear,_ ” Chihiro announced to no one in particular, his hands fiddling with some important-looking broadcast equipment. His words almost felt disconnected, a distinct absence of meaning or weight. “ _I think I know the shade!_ ”

After a moment of staggering silence, Leon cleared his voice. 

“....yikes, man _._ ”

Jin stood there, unsure how to proceed. This was not a student conflict he had encountered before as an administrator, not even during the mutual killing games. He watched Chihiro, who had his back turned to the pair. He was clacking away at some keyboard now, seemingly without a care in the world. 

Seemingly. 

“Well, aha, um,” Jin said, stumbling over his words, which was not something he was prone to do. Special circumstances. “ _Thank you two for taking me up on my offer._ I’m glad you came in a pair, as I was worried about anyone going through this...alone. As you now know, this is the Data Processing room. During your school days, this was the ideal place for students specializing in data sciences to hone their craft, such as yourself, Fujisaki-san. During your killing games, however, this place was converted into a, ah, _control tower,_ if you will. Enoshima Junko was able to control all parts of the Ultimate Despair, both inside and outside of the school.”

“For as sinister her acts were, she does, of course, possess a brilliant mind,” Jin continued, turning to look at the one lit-up monitor, a crackling image of Towa City’s Great Bridge. “After my own passing, I took note of her feats of engineering and modified them for my own purposes as a way to monitor what happens elsewhere.”

Behind him, Jin heard the sound of fabric ruffling and a vocal scoff. “It’s, ah, not as creepy as it sounds,” he tried to reassure the two students. “But I do want you two to be aware of what you are getting into. Despite the horrors you went through, I just don’t know if you’re ready for the Tragedy…”

“‘course we’re not ready,” a voice cut off his thought. Kuwata Leon had taken a step forward, planting himself squarely in the center of the room instead of hanging by the wall. “But we gotta see the bullshit for ourselves to believe it.” 

Chihiro shot the baseball player a look for using language like that in front of their headmaster. Still, he only received a shrug in return. They were all equal in death, he supposed. “...so does that mean that what we saw on our tapes was-”

“Yes,” Jin’s smile was empty. “I’m afraid so.”

The sound of motors whirring seemed to be the only movement in the room. Whatever feelings the two ultimates were going through, they were determined to push everything aside for the truth. It really was a shame. 

Jin’s free hand reached into his pant pocket with a sigh, pulling out a small remote. “ _...if you two are so determined to see, I will show you._ Just please make sure to go at your own pace, and please feel free to speak up if you need to take a break. As I am no longer your headmaster, and instead of your peer, I feel comfortable saying what is happening, what has happened - it’s a shit show.” 


	2. the music

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> life outside of hope's peak is a major yikes for me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hehe remnant time

What felt like an eternity must have passed before either student could do anything. What they saw on the screen...they could not comprehend. It was all...red. Everything was red, just like that old saying. A deep, sickening blood red, nothing natural. None of this was natural. It was red. Everything was red. 

Osaka was red.

Shaky hands pulled out a chair before Leon collapsed, slumping back. The impact sent shooting pain through his body, but his mind was forced elsewhere. He couldn’t breathe. He wasn’t choking, but he couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t even think about breathing if he wanted to. His eyes darted across the screens, desperately trying to find some sort of meaning. His eyes were shifty these days, always suspicious, always searching. Despite all the evidence in the world presented in front of him, none of it made sense. Maybe that’s what causes the despair, senseless slaughter with no meaning at all.

He watched in horror as his former schoolmate, former coach, former confidante, former friend, beat a man to the ground. Nidai Nekomaru had a pair of chains wrapped around his fist, beating them senselessly into the already-dead body, if only to prove a point. Two others cowered in horror, people Leon recognized as old teammates, though now aged with time and tragedy. Training them into the ground, huh? _Well shit._

This wasn’t him. This was never him. Nekomaru wouldn’t do this, not unless they were really asking for it, and even then, never to this degree. You know a guy for years, you think you’d know what he’d do. They’d spent countless days in the batting box, the only person who could make practice tolerable. They spent countless nights together, Leon banging on his trainer’s door at 2AM because he needed a place to vent, to scream about baseball, and school, and girls, and Kanon ~~stupid Kanon~~ and someone to tell him he’s not a stupid jackoff like Kuzuryuu said because he knew he was, but Leon didn’t want to hear it. Not today. Nekomaru tolerated his music.

Nobody tolerated his music. 

A fist slammed down on the table, sending another jolt through his arm. “ _This is so fuckin’ stupid!_ ” Leon’s voice cracked, choking on his own words. 

Behind him, Chihiro shook, tremors taking over his body. His mind kept jumping between then and now, the locker room and the monitors. His hand moved to a mouse without thinking and clicked to the next screen. And then the next, and the next. Every image was the same, every picture of genocide in their own right. Because of the upperclassmen, he looked up to so long ago. Two years. Had it really been two years?

His clicking became more frantic, scrolling through screen after screen. He had to find his dad. Chihiro had to find his dad and see that he is alive, or see that he is dead, or at least know he is something other than forgotten in limbo. His index finger kept _tap-tap-tapping_ , each strike flicking to a new horror. Blood. There was more blood than he’d ever seen in his life. 

Eventually, the monitors circled back through, back to Osaka, and then past it again, but Chihiro didn’t seem to care. His vision was blurred with tears; he didn’t even notice running down his face. 

“This can’t be real. This cannot be for real, none of this can be for-fuckin- _real_ , _Kirigiri t-tell me it’s not real--_ ” Leon whipped around, his eyes frantically searching for answers. There was nothing to be found in the sea of purple looking back. He knew the answer...oh god, did he know the answer. But he couldn’t face the music. 

“ _th-there’s gotta be a way back,”_ his voice was now pleading, and as he pushed himself off his chair, Leon tripped, stumbling forward. Everything hurt, and he was choking, he was choking, and everything hurt. “there’s gotta be. I...I gotta stop this. I gotta go sock that fuckhead in the teeth for doin’ th...this-"

"I don’t care if they kill me once, twice a thousand times, I gotta stop this, Jin. I gotta _stop_ it, _Jin stop it_ -”

 _But they’ve already killed you a thousand times_...Chihiro thought to himself before letting out a small gasp. A thought came to mind, and while he was pretty sure he knew the answer, he needed proof. 

“Leon!” Chihiro called out, pulling Leon from his downward spiral back. He pointed a finger at his friend, doing his best to keep it steady. “Do you remember your relationship with Souda Kazuichi?”

“I-I, -uh…” Leon blinked, unceremoniously yanked back towards reality. “I mean y-yeah? There weren’t many people who liked punk music, so we kind of gravitated despite being in different classes...” 

“He was the one who’d dye my hair. He was the only person I knew who was any good at it, and we’d um…” he glanced over at his former headmaster, who was listening rather expectantly. It wasn’t like any of this was stuff he didn’t already know, so it probably didn’t hurt. But it wasn’t a confession Leon was particularly _thrilled_ to be making in front of Kirigiri. Well, what was he going to do, give him detention? “...s-skip class about once a month and he’d do my hair, and I’d give him like, a stick-and-poke or piercing or some shit…”

“Woah, you do your own piercings?” Chihiro asked.

“ _Heh, yea,_ _me and anyone else who wants em._ ” 

“Could you give _me_ a piercing?”

“...do you even _want_ a piercing…?”

The programmer pursed his lips. Cuffs were always pretty cute, and it wasn’t like they were girly or anything... _wait-no-that’s-not-the-point-of-this-at-all!!!_ “Aah, right, so you’re saying you two were close?”

“Sure we were,” Leon shrugged, momentarily at ease with this conversation. “Thick as thieves.”

“I see…” 

And without a pause, Chihiro turned back towards Jin. Without breaking eye contact, he pointed at a monitor showing the killing game. 

“Souda-kun built the executions.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> souda building the executions is my favorite remnant hc and something i definitely plan on touching on if i write the post remnant series. which i will. finished redrafting the rest of this series today. i am so happy with the direction its going, i tried to reorder things so each character gets a little bit more equal time. though if you haven't noticed, the mondo/chihiro/leon and eventually taka (rip) squad will get the most focus. they are my favorites. sue me. 
> 
> also....i redid the epilogue. no spoilers but.......chiaki. oop!


	3. the music has been faced

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> oopsy! just angst.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ya its loose graphic idk yall know my style by this point

“Your execution, Leon,” Chihiro tried again after a moment of awkward silence. “The thousand blo-”

“ _ yea, wh-what of it? _ ” 

“It makes sense you were killed with something related to your talent,” the programmer began, pacing the room in thought. His fingers brushed across the desktops, leaving an oily track in their wake. “But I feel like it’s... it’s more  _ thematic  _ than that.”

A pause, Chihiro drumming his fingers against the hardwood. His mind was racing at five-hundred miles per hour, and he had to solve this mystery. He was so close; he just needed to...visualize it. “You hated baseball...but more importantly, you hated practicing. That’s not what you’d expect from a super high school level student. Practice…”

_....filled him with despair.  _ Snapping his fingers, Chihiro turned around, his eyes deadset. “Pitching machines are only used in practice, right?” Leon did not respond. He was staring at the linoleum floor, his eyes flitting over the tiles. He was shaking one leg hard, fast, so fast it felt like he could cause the whole room to come tumbling down, taking precious computer equipment down with him. With no hope for an answer here, the programmer turned towards Jin and repeated his question. After a moment of consideration, the headmaster nodded an affirmative. 

“I see...so practice killed you. Literally.”  _ Someone would have to know him pretty well to make something as symbolic as that.  _ Was this how Makoto felt in their trials? Chihiro only saw him in action once, but you could tell something was different from the classmate they first met. Gone was the meek boy (almost as meek as he was), and instead, there stood a pillar of truth. A pillar of truth. Naegi Makoto, a pillar of truth. 

No matter how hard he wanted to, no matter how hard he tried, Leon’s eyes couldn’t stop moving. They never stopped moving these days. Nothing could be trusted. Trust got him killed, trust in Sayaka, trust in his classmates. Trust in Souda. __ (fuck) And even here, he couldn’t pull his eyes away from the floor, afraid the tile would be pulled out from him like a cheap magician’s act, and he’d be dragged back, dragged back down to the living hell that was Hope’s Peak. 

Choking. He was choking. It took everything Leon had to swallow, his mouth cotton. He wouldn’t...do that. They’d been friends. Kazuichi was his fucking  _ friend _ , which were hard to come by when you looked like a greasy good-for-nothing piece of shit mother _ fucker oh god he was choking he was  _ **_ choking.  _ **

A shaky hand reached up, trying to will his larynx down, a trick Sayaka taught him during their first week. Back when he could never breathe. He stroked desperately, forcing himself to stay grounded, he’s grounded, he’s here, not there, even though here looks and feels and acts like there, he’s not, he’s here.

And Leon couldn’t go back, no matter how much he wanted to sock Nidai in the teeth.

He had to throw.

He had to throw right here, right now, or he would die. Without registering the object, Leon’s hand shot out and grabbed the first thing he saw before cranking back and hurling it towards the monitors, a fastball at close proximity. It whizzed through the air before making contact, a loud  _ pop _ followed by an explosion. Sparks flew, and the fizz of electricity caused the power to flicker throughout the school. In the wake of the destruction lay a mangled stapler. 

_ Fast stapler in close proximity _ . 

Taking a deep breath, he let out a shaky laugh at his own personal before crumbling to the ground, head in his hands. Shooting pain, but he wouldn’t choke. Not this time. He couldn’t if he tried. Leon screamed, and he screamed long and hard. 

After a moment of shock, Chihiro tried taking a step forward. And then another. He had never been a particularly confident boy, but he needed to be a rock for both of them right now. 

He took one last step before reaching out to touch Leon’s shoulder. “I-I’m sorry if I made you upset, Leon-” he began before having his hand slapped away, falling limp by his shorts. The meaning hurt more than the gesture itself, though he couldn’t help but wince at the sting. 

Jin watched in silence, having moved to the back of the room to give the teenagers space. He had the remote clutched in his hand, ready to shut things down if everything got too out of hand...but it looked like Kuwata handled that for him. The monitors would be repaired by the next day, returning to their natural state, but would the baseball player?  _ They weren’t ready _ , he thought to himself, swirling his coffee around in his mug. 

“You’re too smart to hide anything from,” Jin said, his smile empty. “I tried protecting you back at school, but we saw how that turned out...so I thought maybe this time it would be more mature to address the situation head-on.”

“No matter how much Hope’s Peak aged you,” he continued, “you are all still kids. I-I’m sorry for this, Kuwata-san…”

“I-I guess you picked great Ultimates, at least…” Chihiro’s words clunky in his mouth, desperately trying to find some positive in all of this. “Ma-maybe too good, Souda-kun’s really smart, that’s why he’s was able to do all thi-”

“ _ Jesus Christ, Chihiro, quit using the _ **_ fuckin’ honorific! _ ** _! _ ” A hand slammed on the desk beside him, causing the programmer to flinch. Leon pried himself from the ground, legs shaky underneath him. The weight of the table would have to hold him up.

He must have been at least a foot taller than Chihiro when standing, if not more. Leon noticed how his friend shook, almost violently, and realized all the looming must be hitting too close to home. He blinked, before folding himself back into a slouch, muttering  _ sorry  _ under his breath. 

“He’s, like, a supervillain, dude.” His hand drifted to meddle with his lock, the chain slipping between fingers. “And you’re dead. You don’t gotta respect ’em is all I’m sayin….”

Nothing was going on behind Chihiro’s eyes for at least thirty seconds, stuck in a primal fight-or-flight (most likely flight.) Slowly he came back to existence and nodded, maybe in understanding, maybe in acceptance. 

“uh-umm, ok, uh…. _ bastard!!” _ A halfhearted fist shook in the air, prompting a light chuckle from Jin. Chihiro shifted his weight right to left, left to right before glancing back towards his old headmaster. “S-so...are there more…?”

Jin’s laughter stopped, and he tilted his head. “I’m sorry, Fujisaki-san, I don’t believe I understa-”

“More executions.” A voice previously sounding so scared had suddenly shifted, pivoting towards something detached. Something that didn’t quite know what it was asking, or maybe it did and didn’t want to face it. It sent a shiver down his spine. “He designed them all, correct? He designed them all, correct? I’m assuming he had to, considering anyone could kill at any time…” 

“Yes,” Jin responded rather plainly. “Including mine.”

The two students froze, letting their minds run. Did Kirigiri kill someone? It’s safe to assume not, that information would be hard to erase. Then it would make sense that his execution was more ceremonial, as a way to tie up loose ends. His absence would make it easier to implement a plan on that scale, that is for sure. To think they might have already witnessed an execution before, without even remembering it…

“.... what’s mine?” Chihiro broke the silence. 

“Fujisaki-san…” 

“I said, ‘what’s mine?’” 

“No, dude, don’t, ya don’t….you don’t wanna know-”

“What’s _? Mine?!” _

He was shaking, this time with rage. It might have been the first time either of them had seen Chihiro’s eyes filled with hate, rage, and despair. The word felt metallic on the tongue, like blood from a busted lip. He just stood there, eyes welling with tears, hot, angry tears, misdirected anger targeted at a bystander.  _ He should know better than this...  _ Leon thought to himself, shoving hands into pockets.

There was no use arguing with him. With a sigh, Kirigiri Jin gestured at a notebook, which was quickly snatched up. Nimble fingers made quick work flipping through pages before finally landing on the one he wanted. Leon couldn’t make out the text, but from over Chihiro’s shoulders, he could see schematics for what looked to be a side-scrolling platformer.  _ Huh _ .

All the fire behind Chihiro’s eyes died away, leaving behind remnants of ash. He flipped through the pages again, this time with less ferocity, and took in each blueprint. “H-he really did a great job, I’ll give him that…”

Without another word, Chihiro places the book back on the desk, he found it so Leon can get a better look. For a moment, his eyes meet with Jin’s before turning away. The two students say nothing, transfixed by the pages.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i know this isn't a fluffy chapter but the idea of chihiro halfheartedly calling someone a bastard is SO FUCKING FUNNY ad;ifojaslka 
> 
> ya so this is the lst part of this section so yay expect something new soon
> 
> schoolwork is done! im officially a junior in college. time to keep it goin. im ready to wrap this series up so i can start something nwe later adfasklfjasfafk;j

**Author's Note:**

> i love writing chihiro in this series bc i just like seeing him a little bit more confident and cheeky. lord let him be strong. like i said, there's two more chapters. one is done and will be posted either later today or tomorrow. the other wil be the next day. i'm done with exams in two days so this series should be picking up again, goal is to have it done by the end of may
> 
> as ive said before, ive been drafting my next works. i think, timeline wise, i can do a largescale fic like this in a month w/o interruption of school work. rn i have a post!remnant fic (similar to this one i guess where its a lot of reflection) and i have a REALLY fluffy slice of life series about toilet bound hanako kun. and i will eventually. do the stupidest fukin mobster au of all time. 
> 
> ty for readig this. also ty for putting up with the weird formatting when i started this i didn't understnad the anthology =/= chapter fic and i regret that decision every day especially considering this is gonna be 20 chapters. i have shortened it to 20 chapters and an epilogue. i can do no more. so we're like almost to halfway. yay!
> 
> ok bye ily


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